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This compelling memoir is by turns charming and chilling. As the artist-author restores a forty-acre farm field and builds a house in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, making the mistakes of a city slicker but somehow bumbling through to success, he also uncovers the story of the battle of Cross Keys that was fought on his land 125 years earlier. ... more »Alternating chapters focus contrapuntally on the 1980's and 1860's, keeping the reader glued to these fascinating pages. -James M. McPherson« less